train for Bologna was three and a half hours
late. Special trains were coming through every ten minutes from Treviso
and Venice packed with refugees, going southwards. The organisation of
the Italian railways at this time for clearing the refugees from the
righting zone was exceedingly good. Siramo thought that, if Venice had
to be abandoned, the Germans and Austrians would not damage it. I felt
no such security. That night we stopped at Milan. Wild stories of
"tradimento" were in the air. It was being said, for instance, that two
Generals of the Second Army had been marched through their troops in
handcuffs under a guard of Carabinieri. It was also officially
announced that Diaz had replaced Cadorna in command of the Italian
Armies.

Next day we reached Arquata amid the tumble of the Ligurian Hills, whose
sides were clothed with chestnuts and oaks and vine terraces. We found
British Staff, Sanitary Sections and Ordnance already in possession. The
Ordnance were occupying a large villa just outside the town. My old
friend Shield, whom I had known at Palmanova, was there, but most of the
others were new arrivals from France. They were surprisingly full of
cheerfulness, as _imboscati_ are often apt to be, even when things are
going badly at the Front. The Italian disaster evidently meant very
little to them; they hardly realised it at all. They were the first
cheerful people I had seen since the retreat began, and it was no doubt
good for Siramo and myself to be cheered up. But it grated on both of us
a little.

At my first interview I got the impression that the Ordnance were
surprisingly efficient and would be very prompt in giving us what we
wanted. But I gradually discovered that they really possessed very
little of what they first promised me, and that nothing was known for
certain as to when further stores would arrive. I telephoned to Ferrara
that the immediate prospects were poor, and was told in reply to wait
three or four days and see how much turned up. Having pestered various
Ordnance officers to the limit of their endurance, I therefore decided
to go away for two days.

Siramo went for two days to his family at Turin and I took the train to
Genoa, arriving in the early afternoon. After lunch I set out to walk
eastwards along the Cornice Road. It was a relief to my thoughts and
feelings to be quite alone. The day was windy and sunless and rather
cold, but the warm and audacious colouring of the Villas and t